Great slam-dunks, but no points

BBC COBURG’s season in the BARMER ProB 2nd German Basketball League ended with a defeat: In a Franconian derby that had no bearing on the relegation battle (TG Würzburg had likewise avoided the drop going into the encounter), it went down 67:73 (41:39) in the HUK-COBURG arena on Saturday evening.

It was clear before the tip-off that not much was at stake in the encounter: Whereas the players usually warm up in a disciplined manner, there was a small slam-dunk competition among the team before the game on Saturday evening. Chase Adams, Kevin Franceschi and Co. displayed impressive dives through the air, repeatedly slammed the ball through the hoop in spectacular fashion, and visibly enjoyed themselves a lot. The 1,012 spectators at the Lauterer Höhe then saw an evenly poised first period in which Coburg went 18:17 ahead in the final second after three free throws by captain Yasin Turan.

That was followed by the strongest spell by the home side, which pulled 30:21 ahead and forced Würzburg to call a timeout. However, the club from Lower Franconia was able to catch up and Coburg led only by the narrow margin of 41: 39 at half-time. Yet that was not time for the BBC’s players to retire to the dressing room: Four signed original shirts were drawn among the loyal fans and handed over by the team on court. Before that, the BBC said farewell to its Sporting Director Matt Haufer, who intends to focus in the future on his work at the German league club medi Bayreuth and will only act as an external adviser.

The encounter remained tight after the break. The visitors from the city on the River Main got better into their stride, but met with stiff resistance in particular from their former teammate Christopher Wolf, who ended up as Coburg’s top scorer with 18 points and also snapped up 11 rebounds to achieve a double double. The BBC went into the final ten minutes of the season trailing by 50:56. Yet the TGW now did all the right things to keep Coburg at a distance of five points all the time and the BBC did not manage to turn the game around.

At the end of the day, the last defeat of the season will remain just a statistical footnote: Coburg had long secured its place in the 2nd league and the result did nothing to change the final standings. Yet it was clear even after the final buzzer that the players would have liked to have captured the two points for their fans to bring the season to a close – yet the spectators could still take away memories of the pre-game slam-dunk contest as a big highlight.